Heavy Metal

Saved this from scrapyard
Some crAckhead sold it for scrap brass
35 lbs of brass empty
7 inches around by 41 inches tall.
Had a loading date of 1914
Then another reloading date of 1916 patronenfabrik
I bought from scrapyard and sold to military museum.
Museum said it belonged to a WW1 German
Battleship gun.
To size the shell up that is a dishwasher to the left of it.

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definitely a museum piece, if not by age alone, that was used in WWI. "PATRONEFABRIK" means "cartridge manufacturing". maybe there was something else that tied it to a particular german/german speaking manufacturer?

given the size, it was a BIG gun.. Battleship as they identified, or maybe (although they were later) on of Germany's WWI rail guns?.

I found a couple of data points. One shell in a museum . its biggeer than yours was, but simila looking and all-brass construction

source: Large calibre German artillery shell case
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One of Germany's WWI rail guns, the K L/40 "Kurfürst", six made, all scrapped by Treaty of Versailles. They did use naval guns to make the L/40's.

CORRECTION: Wiki article says the L/40 did NOT use metal cartridges but rather bag charges & projectiles.

source: 28 cm K L/40 "Kurfürst" - Wikipedia


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definitely a museum piece, if not by age alone, that was used in WWI. "PATRONEFABRIK" means "cartridge manufacturing". maybe there was something else that tied it to a particular german/german speaking manufacturer?

given the size, it was a BIG gun.. Battleship as they identified, or maybe (although they were later) on of Germany's WWI rail guns?.

I found a couple of data points. One shell in a museum . its biggeer than yours was, but simila looking and all-brass construction

source: Large calibre German artillery shell case
View attachment 563586


One of Germany's WWI rail guns, the K L/40 "Kurfürst", six made, all scrapped by Treaty of Versailles. They did use naval guns to make the L/40's.

CORRECTION: Wiki article says the L/40 did NOT use metal cartridges but rather bag charges & projectiles.

source: 28 cm K L/40 "Kurfürst" - Wikipedia


View attachment 563588
Didn't know they made rail guns in WWI
 
I only learned doing this thread over the years. Wiki link says they basically came in in 1918 ... early same year WWI ended.

"The six "Kurfürst" guns entered service in early 1918, participating in the German spring offensive and the subsequent defensive operations. They were organized into Batteries 393, 434, 722 and the First through Third Batteries of Bavarian Foot Artillery Battalion (1.-3./Bayerische Fußartillerie-Batallion) 29 with one gun each. All six were destroyed in 1921–22 by the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control."
 
First guys to use them? Source: Railway gun - Wikipedia

American Civil War.

"The first railway gun used in combat was a banded 32-pounder Brooke naval rifle mounted on a flat car and shielded by a sloping casemate of railroad iron.

On 29 June 1862, Robert E. Lee had the gun pushed by a locomotive over the Richmond and York River line (later part of the Southern Railway) and used at the Battle of Savage's Station to interfere with General George McClellan's plans for siege operations against Richmond during the Union advance up the peninsula."


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In WWI we had one too.

"Baldwin Locomotive Works delivered five 14"/50 caliber railway guns on trains for the United States Navy during April and May 1918.

Each 14"/50 gun mounted on a 72-foot (22 m), 535,000-pound (243 t) rail carriage with four 6-wheel bogies was under the command of a United States Navy lieutenant with a standard U.S. Army 2-8-0 locomotive, a 10-ton crane car, two armored ammunition cars carrying 25 shells each, two cars carrying the recoil pit foundation materials, two fuel and workshop cars, three berthing cars, a kitchen car, a commissary car, and a medical dispensary car."

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source: Allure of the Seas - Wikipedia

This is a big honkin' boat. Norwegian Cruise Lines, Allure of the Seas. Sister ship, a bit shorter, the Oasis.

Not for me, but everybody in my family wants to get on these things.

The engineering would be fascinating though. 250K tons, almost 1,200 feet long, almost 24 stories tall,135K HP, and can do 23 knots.

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Sister ship, the Oasis.
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Allure's engine room
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source: Allure of the Seas - Wikipedia

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Five minute right below was video done in early 1960's in Britain. Documents the scrapping of the British steam engines built in the 1920's in the new age of diesel electrics in the 1950's.



I am not a "train-o-phile" per se. I like the fact that we saved many of the old steam horses in museums and well as a few that are still running.

It still is sad to see Iron Horses get recycled .. but such is the way of technical advance. Rather than throw the old stuff away, it lives on in the new stuff so to speak.

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The British, however, seems to be more "rabid" about preservation (subject for a different thread).

This five minute video talks about "Barry Island Scrapyard". It has a bit of a surprising ending .. the great majority (like 2/3rd's) of steam engines sent to Barry Island were saved.

Including "5972" for any of you Harry Potter fans.

 
Meanwhile, today, deep in the Maine woods ....

Abandoned since the Great Depression snuffed out demand, these are remnants of a purpose-built railroad (in 1927 by the Great Northern Paper Company) to get spruce lumber from Northern Maine for "pulpwood".

Isolated from other railroads, and waiting better days that never came, a lotta stuff just got left behind.

Almost 100 years later, here it sits.

sources: Locomotive Graveyard, Abandoned Eagle Lake and West Branch Railroad – Greg Disch Photography

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source: Allure of the Seas - Wikipedia

This is a big honkin' boat. Norwegian Cruise Lines, Allure of the Seas. Sister ship, a bit shorter, the Oasis.

Not for me, but everybody in my family wants to get on these things.

The engineering would be fascinating though. 250K tons, almost 1,200 feet long, almost 24 stories tall,135K HP, and can do 23 knots.

View attachment 566336

Sister ship, the Oasis.
View attachment 566340

Allure's engine room
View attachment 566338

source: Allure of the Seas - Wikipedia

View attachment 566337

These engines are dual fuel, but what are they going to do when the world wants to go all electric. :lol:

Kinda like the US car companies saying they are going to be all electric by 2035
 
Good question boss.

I dunno much about the electric boat movement. I know its out there like everything else that drives or flies on this planet.

But a cruise ship? Seems the Chinese (US and CHina prolly ain't on friendly terms with this technology so not a lot is known) have the worlds biggest right now.

sources: China Builds The World's Largest Electric Cruise Ship, 'World's largest electric cruise ship' makes maiden voyage in China with a whopping 7,500 kWh in battery power

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"A bit over 300 feet long, 50+ feet wide, and can accommodate 1,300 passengers. the electric cruise ship is equipped with 7,500 kWh of battery capacity, one of the largest, if not the largest battery packs within an electric vehicle i(equivalent to 100 passenger vehicles) in the world.

However, even such tremendous capacity cannot deliver the necessary range for the large vessel to travel long distances on water. The ship’s current range is about 100 km (62 miles) on a charge.


Plenty of range for sightseeing up and down the river, but certainly not enough to compete with vacation cruise lines at this point. That being said, that 100 km range is equivalent to 530 metric tons of fuel, accounting for 1,660 less tons of toxic emissions each year."

Five years ago, the speculation was the Chinese electric boat would rival existing cruise ships when it showed up in 2022.

source: https://www.marinelog.com/news/plan-to-build-up-to-six-cruise-ships-in-china-moves-ahead/
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This Carnival Vista boat is 1,100 feet long, 150 feet wide, can carry 5,000 people, at 18 knots, for thousands of trans-oceanic kilometers. The Chinese can likely easily (maybe - probably some IP they'd need to get around) build a conventional boat this size .. but an electric-populsion boat? Naw .... I don't think anybody can.

While the Chinese boat is a good learning lab, it aint yet remotely in the same league as a modern cruise ship as some people kinda thought five years ago for the electric boat.

Nowhere near the the size of the Norwegian Cruise Lines or Carnival ships, nor in performance (speed not disclosed) but only with a range of 60 miles before it needs a recharge.

It also operates along the Yangtse River and gets its recharges using the Three Gorges dam facilities in some way .. how do you charge 7,500 KWh (7.5 Mega watts) in a timely way?

Big cruise ships and cargo carriers, IMHO, will have the same kinda problem why we don't see electric 787s. Sustained electric power needed, to economically travel thousands of miles without stopping to "recharge", vs what jet engines/petroleum aviation fuels provide, is totally inadequate for electrics.

source: Electric Airplanes Won’t Make Much of a Dent in Air Travel for Decades to Come
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Subject for another thread, but I can see giant passenger/cargo transportation systems staying on petroleum-based, "internal combustion" propulsion systems for a LONG time.

In the meantime, work is surely gonna continue on alternative propulsion in earnest.
 
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